THE FIRST COMPLETE SELF-CONSISTENT DESCRIPTION OF QUANTUM MECHANICS -- THE FAMOUS “THREE-MAN PAPER.” 

FIRST EDITION, journal issue. “In May, 1925, Heisenberg deliberately abandoned the classical picture of particles and orbits, and took a long, hard look at the mathematics that describes the associations between pairs of quantum states, without asking himself how the quantum entity gets from state A to state B. In the summer of 1925, working with Pasqual Jordan, Born translated Heisenberg's mathematical insight into the formal language of matrices, and Born, Heisenberg and Jordan together published a full account of the work, in what became known as the three-man paper. The equations of Newtonian (classical) mechanics were replaced by similar equations involving matrices, and many of the fundamental concepts of classical mechanics-such as the conservation of energy-emerged naturally from the new equations. Matrix mechanics seemed to contain Newtonian Mechanics within itself, in much the same way that the equations of the general theory of relativity include the Newtonian description of gravity as a special case” (Gribben, Q is for Quantum, pp. 325-326).

 

[Bound uniformly with:]

 

BORN and JORDAN. “Zer Quantentheorie aperiodischer Vorgänge.” In: Zeitschrift für Physik, Vol. 33, pp.479-505. Berlin: Julius Springer, June 26, 1925. -- HEISENBERG. “Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen.” In: Zeitschrift für Physik, Vol. 33, pp.879-893. Berlin: Julius Springer, July 29, 1925. -- BORN and JORDAN. “Zur Quantenmechanik.” In: Zeitschrift für Physik, Vol. 34, pp.858-888. Berlin: Julius Springer, September 27, 1925.

 

FIRST EDITIONS, journal issues, of three of the first papers in the field of quantum mechanics, which trace the creation and development of “the essential framework for twentieth-century physics,” and which lay the groundwork for the “three-man paper” (Simmons, The Scientific 100). 

 

Together, 4 articles in 3 journals, 8vo. Contemporary blue buckram; blue cloth folding case. Provenance: Mount Wilson Observatory, Carnegie Institution of Washington (blindstamps on flyleaves and a few discreet pencil markings).